CO885-(10-11) — Page 786

567.

C.O. 885

སཔ་ ་་་་་་་་་-་

11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE

BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

No. 625.

(NATAL.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

MY LORD,

Temple, January 13, 1870. We are honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Mr. Sandford's letter of the 11th instant, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us the copy of a report of a Select Committee of the Legislative Council of Natal upon a Law, No. 1 of 1869, "to enable the Lieutenant-Governor to impose fees on the registration of native marriages, and on certain other customs and usages of the natives, and to make provision for remunerating the chiefs of such natives," in which a number of questions upon the construction of that law were stated for the

purpose being submitted to us.

"

64

of

2. That those questions were submitted in the form required by the 405th Colonial Regulation (copy enclosed), and your Lordship had thought it best to comply with the request of the Council in obtaining an answer to them; but it would be explained thereafter to the Governor that it was not intended to constitute the Law Officers of the Crown in this country the advisers of the local legislature in questions of that kind, but only when their opinions were required for the settlement of legal or constitutional questions of importance and difficulty.

3. That in explanation of that report, he was desired to transmit to us a copy of the Law No. 1 of 1869, and of the Despatch from the Secretary of State of the 24th December upon that law, from which it would be seen that the Lieutenant-Governor was allowed to assent to the reserved Bill, but that it was not thought expedient that it should be applied to all marriages contracted before the passing of that law, and it was pointed out that as the Bill was an enabling Bill it would rest with the Lieutenant- Governor to determine whether such marriages should be registered.

4. That he was to state that a proclamation and regulations recently issued by the Lieutenant-Governor in his capacity of supreme chief over the native population of the Colony, which capacity was recognised by the Local Law No. 3 of 1849 (copy annexed) required registration of every marriage, and fix(ed) the fees which were to be paid upon each registration at 51., which, however, in accordance with the suggestion of the Secretary of State was only payable in marriages contracted after the passing of the proclamation.

5. And that he was to request that we would report to your Lordship what answers should be returned to the questions submitted by the Committee of the Legislative Council.

In obedience to your Lordship's commands we have taken this matter into con- sideration, and have the honour to

Report

That the law in question is drawn with extraordinary carelessness and inaccuracy so as to afford room for abundant cavil at almost all its provisions, yet if it be read as a whole, with a bonâ fide desire to arrive at its meaning, we think that meaning sufficiently plain. We may observe that the objections raised to it on the ground of the inconsistency of its provisions came rather late, and with no very good grace, from the legislative body which passed it.

The Committee of the Legislative Council are evidently unacquainted with some of the first principles applicable to the construction of statutes.

The "preamble" is no essential part of a statute, and although it may sometimes be usefully referred to as indicating the general scope of a statute, and throwing some light upon its provisions, no clause of a statute can possibly be void because its provisions are not indicated in the "preamble."

Again, the schedule is in this case an essential part of the Act, and the committee are wrong in supposing, as they appear to do, that it cannot enlarge the powers con- The clauses and the schedule must ferred by what they call the "enabling clauses."

be taken together, and the whole effect of them, taken together, ascertained.

Further, a statute should be construed, not with the intention of discovering all possible contradictions and inconsistencies, but with the view of reconciling, as far as can be fairly done, its several parts, and arriving at its meaning as a whole.

0 16978,-191. 25.-5/86.